Video released by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the very first industrial spacecraft to dock with the International Spaceport Station. Space, X (A Britannica Publishing Partner), (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria, South Africa), South African-born American business owner who cofounded the electronic-payment company Pay, Buddy and formed Space, X, maker of launch cars and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the very first considerable financiers in, in addition to chief executive officer of, the electric cars and truck manufacturer Tesla. Top Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Friend and established the spacecraft company Area, X.
Elon Musk established Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the primary executive officer and a significant funder of Tesla, that makes electrical cars and trucks. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He displayed an early skill for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a video game and sold it to a computer system publication. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa due to the fact that he was reluctant to support apartheid through mandatory military service and since he sought the greater economic opportunities offered in the United States. Musk attended Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he got bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he established Zip2, a business that provided maps and company directory sites to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer system maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services company, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Buddy, which concentrated on transferring cash online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to endure, humankind needs to become a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with the fantastic cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more inexpensive rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first released in 2018), was developed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its biggest rival, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Area, X has actually revealed the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy first phase would be capable of lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft created for supplying quick transport between cities on Earth and constructing bases on the Moon and Mars.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68651356/1228322928.0.jpg)
Dragon can carry as numerous as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to lower the cost of spaceflight by developing a completely multiple-use rocket that could lift off and go back to the pad it released from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made several brief flights to check such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also primary designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to special content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long had an interest in the possibilities of electric automobiles, and in 2004 he became one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later relabelled Tesla), an electric car company founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.